Help For Caregivers

Someone I know has been diagnosed with testicular cancer. What should I do?

When someone we know is diagnosed with testicular cancer we often find ourselves filling our role as a caregiver. You may not recognize it but by providing an array of support to the testicular cancer fighter you are assuming an integral part in the caregiving role. The caregiver role comes with its own unique challenges but you are not alone and there are some things that you can do to help not only your testicular cancer fighter but yourself as well. While every situation is unique we feel that the suggestions below can help greatly.

5 Things Your Can Do:

Learn about Testicular Cancer:

A little knowledge about testicular cancer can go a long was in helping answering some questions and alleviating some fears. Check out our Just Diagnosed page to see what we recommend to men when they are first diagnosed. To get more information about testicular cancer review our Testicular Cancer 101 for some brief information and our Understanding TC page for more in-depth information about testicular cancer.

Get 1-on-1 Support:

Being a caregiver is no easy task and it comes with its own unique emotional challenges but you are not alone and you can learn from others that have been in your similar shoes before. Imerman Angels is a free service that matches current caregivers with other caregivers that have had similar experiences. It gives you the opportunity to make a 1-on-1 connection and ask personal questions or advice from someone that has shared your experience.

Create a Page:

Creating a simple and free GiveForward webpage can serve three main functions. One, as a caregiver you are going to have a lot of information to share with others who are concerned about your testicular cancer fighter and wondering how he is doing. To be honest, you are most likely going to get tired of repeating the same thing for every conversation. A webpage will allow you to post updates so others can follow treatments, etc. without you having to personally tell everyone every little detail. Two, other supporters can stop by the site and give virtual "Hugs" and words of encouragements. Third, fighting cancer is expensive and your fighter might be hesitant to ask for financial help for medical, day-to-day or loss of work expenses. A GiveForward page allows friends, family, loved ones and supporters to provide some financial support for your cancer fighter.

Get Help from Others:

Managing the needs of your testicular cancer fighter on top of normal daily activities can get hectic quickly and most likely there are others that want to help but just don't know what to do. By creating a Lotsa Helping Hands community page others can help with activities such as dinners, child care, rides to treatments and anything else that might be needed.

What is Lotsa Helping Hands? Free, private, web-based communities for organizing friends, family, and colleagues – your ‘circles of community’ – during times of need. Easily coordinate activities and manage volunteers with our intuitive group calendar. Families in crisis are often overwhelmed with many offers of help and phone calls to return. If you are looking for ways to help a friend or loved one, you can create a private community to:

Being a caregiver means that you are going to have a lot of day to day stresses and coping with them is not an easy task. You have to realize that you need to take care of yourself as well and the better that you take care of yourself the better you will be for your testicular cancer fighter. One of the best ways of coping is to share your experiences and learn from others. The good news is that you are not alone and you can find a lot of comfort in others that are going through similar situations.

Our Caregiver Spotlights feature cargegivers who have submitted their stories in their own words. Take a moment to see what others have experienced. If you would like to share your story then we would love to share it with others.

The TC-Cancer.com Forums have a specific Caregivers Space that offers almost 400 threads and 12,000 posts specifically related to being a testicular cancer caregiver. You can read through and learn from others or join the forum and post about your own situation to others in this incredibly supportive community that we highly recommend joining.

The Testicular Cancer Resource Center offers two testicular cancer email listservs, one for patients and one more for supporters. The email listserv will email the other subscribers on the list so that they can join the conversation and offer insight. This is also an incredibly supportive community and we highly recommend joining.

The Stupid Cancer Forums, while not specific to testicular cancer, are focused on the young adult cancer community and offer a Stupid Cancer Caregivers Forum.